Happy to write up a quick report that I won the Huntsville Speedway Omnium this evening to kick off a weekend of racing in Huntsville, Alabama. There were only six of us in the race, but that made for a good safe field size. There were five events run pretty much one right after the other with 5-10 minutes of rest between each event. There were some big storm clouds all around, but the little track stayed dry for the entire time that we were out there.

Race #1 – Scratch Race
This was a fifteen lap race with omnium points awarded to the first five riders across the line at the end of the race. With two riders from Marx and Bensdorf (Bryant Funston and Jeremy Nagoshiner), I needed to make sure to watch for any 1-2 attacks. I made it into an early move with Bryant that separated us from the other four riders, but it came back together again about a lap or two later. I attacked hard halfway through the last lap thinking that if I carried enough speed into the final corner that it would be really hard for anyone to come around. The gamble paid off and I was able to take the sprint win ahead of Bryant.

Race #2 – Points Race
With thunderstorms looming, this was shortened from 25 laps to 15 laps with points awarded every five laps. For the first intermediate sprint with 10 laps to go, I tried the same strategy from the first race, but Bryant was able to come around me out of the last turn so he took maximum points with me second. Then with five laps to go, I was able to win that one by attacking early in the first corner. For the final sprint, I had a bit of luck as Bryant pulled out of his pedal going into the last turn. So I was able to get maximum points on the last one to take the points race win.

Race #3 – Miss and out
This was probably the trickiest race as we completed 5 laps before the “miss and out” started. From that point on, the last rider across the line each lap was eliminated. Then when we were down to three riders (me, Bryant, and Jeremy), we did two more laps. Jeremy drilled it hard, and then I came around him to start the sprint, but Bryant was able to come around me to take the win with me second, Jeremy third.

Race #4 – Unknown distance
I was starting to feel a bit tired at this point, so I switched strategies to try to mark Bryant since he and I were really close on points. I was going to let anybody else go up the road, but not him or Jeremy. Adam took a flyer once we made it to the mystery laps where they could ring the bell on any lap to end the race on the next lap. He held onto his gap I believe for two or three laps, which was enough for the win because they ring the bell on Lap #12 or #13. It was hard to keep track because the laps went by so quickly (about 30 seconds per lap). Bryant got the jump on me in the sprint, so this time I tried to go high on the track and come around but couldn’t quite do it. So he took second with me third.

Race #5 – Team pursuit
This was a REALLY fun event. With such a small field and only two riders from the same team, we split up into teams of 3 based on USAC license category. I had Adam and Dave. Bryant had his teammate Jeremy and Eric Wright from Gadsden. The format was interesting as omnium points were only awarded to the first rider from each team across the line. But there was also $20 on the line for the winning team. At this point, I still believe that Bryant and I were tied on points going into this race, but the officials had me down with a 1 point lead. Either way, if Bryant’s team won we would be tied and he would also win the tie breaker, but if our team won then I would win the omnium outright.

My team had decided to rotate through going into opposite corners. The rider leading our team would simply ride straight slightly up the embankment while the other two behind would pull through on the inside. This enabled gravity to assist the rider coming off the front to rejoin the paceline more easily. The race was 10 laps long, and the three of us stayed together for about half the race, whereas Bryant’s team lost a rider on the first lap. Still, their team was pulling ahead of us by maybe 5-10 bike lengths (maybe 2 or 3 seconds). About halfway through the race, we lost a teammate so it was down to just me and Adam for the last five laps. With 4 laps to go, Adam said “whole lap” and he drilled it super hard for the entire lap instead of the half laps that we had been doing. Then when he pulled off, I shot around him to do the last three laps to try to catch back up with Bryant who was also on his own by this point. I gained a lot of ground on the first lap and it was close by the second lap, but I believe he was still ahead. Then with one lap to go I sprinted as hard as I could at that point and was able to edge him out by 1/2 of a second. So our team won the pursuit, and I won the omnium!

I was really looking forward to analyzing the power data for the races, but my Powertap cut out halfway through the first race!!! I don’t know if it was a battery issue, or if there was some interference that caused the Garmin to lose the signal, or if the silly thing broke during the race. Oh well, maybe it will be working again tomorrow. Lots of racing tomorrow, and I should have a write-up out sometime on Monday. It would be awesome to have another win to report back on – going to give it my best shot!

Here is my Strava segment data (There are warm-up, cool-down, and in between race laps in the data as well).